Fooly Cooly ReTuNeD Chapter 1
by Amezyarak
Summary: Several years have passed since everyone in Naota's life drifted away. All his school friends have moved away, and his father's almost never home. Life in Mabase once again seems ordinary and boring, just like it was and should be...until Naota gets attac


**FOOLY COOLY –ReTuNeD-**

By Amezyarak

**Prologue—-**

Amidst the pure white layers of fallen snow could be found the faintest traces of the path of a cat. This cat walked along smoothly, seemingly unaware but ready to lash out at any moment. _Meow. _Little did the large black cat know that he was being followed. The cat climbed a steep hill burdened with snow, as a cold winter wind brushed again his sleek black hair. Snow fell gently all around him as he padded along, silently making his way to the hill's crest. To his left and to his right were piles of junk and wreckage half covered in snow. They were mostly the remains of fallen houses and what those houses contained. The air smelled of waste and ash, and sewer water; a most unpleasant, unwelcoming smell. But to the cat's master, Mabase has always been just that:

Unpleasant. Unwelcoming. A town in which nothing out of the ordinary ever happened; a place where everything was ordinary.

The cat hopped onto a small rusted toaster that jutted out from its haphazard location amidst the snow, and stepped up to a pair of old, worn sneakers. The cat rubbed affectionately against the bare lower leg of his master, purring softly. A gentle hand emerged from the front pocket of his master's light-blue sweatshirt and stroked the cat's neck.

"You're back already?"

The cat meowed and gazed up at the familiar face of his master with huge eyes.

"So did you find anything, Takkun?"

"_Naa-naa."_

His master chuckled a bit. "I see." The person that stood before the cat took a moment to gaze up at the bleak, hazy grey sky. He brushed a defiant lock of dark-brown hair away from his sea-blue eyes. He sighed in slight disappointment. "No sun today, Takkun."

"_Naa?_"

His master smiled. "But you don't understand a single thing I'm saying, do you?"

"_Naa-naa."_

"Come on. Let's go home," his master spoke, turning away from the dark, massive object in the distance and walking back down the hill. "If only you could understand me, I'd ask you why you don't sound like a normal cat." Takkun was quick to follow. But a pair of eyes took note of their every move, from a reasonably safe and unnoticeable distance.

"Heheheh…" A pair of huge goggles glinted in the darkness. "I've found you, Naota."

**FLCLR Chapter 1: SUPERIOR**

"Although his voice is deeper and he's quite a bit taller, I know it's him."

"Are you certain of that?"

"Yep. No doubt about it, chief, _it's him. _And he's a bit manlier, now…"

"Right. You have permission to engage."

A sly, cunning grin crept across her face as she continued to chew on the strand of bright orange hair in anticipation. She gripped the radio with her orange-red glove tightly. "Can I test him?"

"Well…confirmed." It was not an immediate, sure reply. However, it was still a confirmation.

**Nandaba residence**

"Hello. Is a…Tasuku Nandaba there? May I please speak to him? Thank you."

There was a pause.

"Hi, Tasuku. It's me…Naota. Yeah, I know, my voice sounds a bit different; a few years have passed since the last time we talked. I'm sorry I haven't called you in a long time; thing's have been really busy here. Alright. Yeah…Mamimi's still…here. B-but she moved to another town…for her photography job. Oh, you read the magazine she was featured in? Yeah…y-yeah. If you have to go, don't let me hold you up. A-alright…bye."

He stood there in the dim-lit hallway, standing before the phone, for a time he could never tell. Then he sniffed. A tear fell onto the receiver, which he was quick to wisp away with the sleeve of his light-blue sweatshirt. He wiped his eyes with the other sleeve, and slowly walked away.

_Everyone's gone. Gaku, Masashi, even Ninamori-san. And I haven't heard any word from Commander Amarao or Lieutenant Kitsurubami for years; I guess everyone's gone off to live their own lives now. And dad's been off finding publishers and snagging more lame stories for his stupid magazine again; I barely ever see him..._

He rested his chin on his folded arms as he leaned over the wooden railing on the balcony. A cool gentle wind brushed against his face. He sighed. _Guess I'm all alone, now._ He reached up and hesitantly touched his forehead, in the exact same spot as always…

_Nothing crazy has been going on with my head since Atomsk was released and escaped into outer space…I wonder if I'm truly cured, at long last…I may have a shot at living a normal life for once. But who am I kidding; what could possibly be normal or exciting in Mabase anymore…now that everyone's gone._

As Naota remembered the past, he recalled upon what Commander Amarao had told him the day Mabase was nearly destroyed…which wasn't the only day that happened.

"_N.O. utilizes the right brain's and left brain's distinct thought processes to open up an interdimensional channel capable of pulling things through, sometimes from light-years away, in an instant. But you can't just use anyone's head; you've gotta find the right one._"

"Yeah, sure," a smile crept across his face as he stared off into nothingness. "And my head was the _only_ one that Haruko—or _Raharu_—could have found to use."

_He sighed again, this time in true disappointment. When Mamimi, Haruko, Canti and everyone else was living here, I had wanted it all to end as soon as possible; I wanted everything to be normal again. And it did end; more abruptly than I would have hoped._

A hawk flew freely amidst the hazy grayness hanging over the town. He watched the hawk until it flew in front of a giant dark object in the distance. It was the hill on which the dormant and lopsided Medical Mechanica plant sat upon, its gigantic iron-like structure now a home only to the birds that perch upon its rooftop. Naota sighed again.

_If only Atomsk dragged it away with him when he flew into the sky that day, the town would be a whole lot prettier…but a lot less interesting. Now, with all the unbelievable rumors and crazy stories, the "dead plant" is more like a harbinger of tourist doom to Mabase. The new mayor won't touch it, but he'll send as many "undercover" operatives to the site for investigation as he likes. _Then he smiled for a moment. _I wonder why they call them "undercover" if so many people know about them…heheh. _

The hawk Naota he'd been observing now landed comfortably on a telephone pole standing near his house. Naota's eyes momentarily shifted from the MM plant to the bird, then back to the plant. _It's been sitting like that for years, ever since that day. It looked a little out of place before, but now that it's lopsidedly jutting out from the hill, ever since Atomsk dropped it from the sky and it landed that way…it looks like a giant piece of modern art in the heart of Mabase. _He smiled at that, too. _The centerpiece of a dinner table._

**An hour later…**

"Hello, Nandaba residence. Yes, this is Naota, who…? Who, if I may ask, is speaking? What are you saying? Who is this? …What do you mean, 'the only way to find her again is to swing the bat one more time'? Who? Who are you? Hello? Hello!"

Naota sighed. He lay on the dreary covers of his bed like a log adrift amidst a calm and boring sea. He stared up at the dark shadows of the bottom of the empty top bunk.

_It's been empty for too long, _he thought with a shrug. For an instant, what he wanted to see most was a familiar orange-haired head peeking at him from the top bunk, or the neck of a familiar Rickenbacker bass guitar jutting out from beneath the covers. That only made him feel more depressed, for he knew it would never happen. _Then again, _he thought, _do I _really_ want a lifestyle like that again?_

Then Naota said something he immediately regretted. "I just wish…something exciting would happen again!"

Suddenly there was a knock on his bedroom door. Naota lurched forward in fright and slammed his forehead against the bottom of the top bunk.

"Ow-ow-ow-ow-ow-ow!"

He clutched his hands to his head as he bent over and fell onto the floor. _Who the hell could be knocking on my door? Is Dad home already?_

The emphatic knocking came again. "Just a minute!" Naota spoke with frustration. As he got up, his forehead continued to throb.

"Is that you, dad?" He opened the door. The hallway was dark and was dead silent. There was a tall, lanky figure standing in the shadows. Something shiny and heavy was held in the figure's right hand.

Naota's eyes squinted at first as he tried to make out the features of the person standing before him. "Who--" Then his eyes widened as he let out a gasp and stumbled backwards. Then the figure stepped into his room, and into the light.

Red, worn mountain boots. Long black pants. A long, forest green sleeveless zipper vest with black striped running across its chest. Long wide-rimmed sleeves with green and black stripes. A pair of green and black gloves, and a light-green scarf. Long, wild, leaf-green hair. And a pair of shining goggles to top it off.

"H-h-h-" Naota collapsed to the ground, leaning on his hands. For an instant he could only stutter. "H-Haruko?"

"Raharu's _superior._" A dark yet obnoxious voice uttered.

Suddenly Naota found himself beneath a massive, shining, green and black Gibson Flying V electric guitar. Its heavy bulk was silhouetted against the bright artificial light shining down from the ceiling, as the woman brought it high above her head with her right arm. Naota brought his hands up above his head as she brought it down upon him with all the violent, destructive power of a bat knocking one out of the park.

_CRACKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK_

_I'm dead…I'm dead…I know I'm dead…right?_ Naota hesitantly forced his eyes open. Wood splinters were scattered across the floor and many were still showering down upon and around him. Shreds of white cloth were fluttering slowly to the floor. The smell of sawdust and wood permeated the air of his room, and he was shocked to see the woman standing over him. But her eyes were not focused upon him at the moment…but his bunk bed which lay smashed in two, caved in upon the floor. She had driven her guitar right through it, shattering the double beds and their sheets instantly.

"Damn. I missed." Suddenly she turned to Naota, her goggles gleaming in the light.

For an instant Naota didn't do anything; his legs wouldn't move. Then he got up, and dashed as fast as his legs would let him, right out his bedroom door.

The woman's eyes followed him down the hallway and down the stairs, her head turning with his movements. "Damn. He got away."

_What the hell was that?_ Naota's heart was racing as fast as his legs as he sped down the street darkened by nightfall. The flickering light of a streetlight shone in the distance, moths fluttering about its luminescence.

Who _was that? Haruko…or someone else? Wait…_

'_Raharu's superior.'_

"'Raharu's…superior'…" Naota spoke as he continued to run. The dark, gigantic silhouette of the dormant Medical Mechanica plant law shadowed against the orange sunset horizon. "So she's Haruko's boss or something?" He momentarily glanced back at his house, expecting to see nothing in sight, no one chasing him, no orange Vespa racing towards him. But he was wrong.

"Heheheheheh…" A dark yet obnoxious snickered with forbidden delight. A loud, spark-spitting clang sounded against the pavement as Haruko's "superior" unsheathed her Flying V guitar with her left hand and let its bottom skim against the pavement. With her right hand she cranked up the loud, rumbling motor of her shining green Vespa. A sly, cunning, and unnervingly familiar grin was spreading beneath her huge, shining goggles.

"I fouuuuuuuuund youuuuuuuu, Taro-kuuuuuuuun!" she croaked nauseatingly.

"My name's not TARO-KUN!" Naota hollered with frustration.

Her Vespa didn't stop. She drove straight towards him, gaining immense distance by the second. Naota frantically looked around for an exit out of this dilemma. _W-where do I go? Not enough time! _The head of her Vespa—and her guitar—were only meters from him. _Not enough time…to escape! _The roar of its engine increased exponentially as her cunning smile morphed into a psychotic grin, as she held her electric guitar high over her head, ready to swing it right through Naota's head.

"N-no…" Naota's eyes widened, unable to turn away from the oncoming Vespa, its single headlight stunning his trembling eyes. "Not again...not again!" That's when he heard a familiar sound…a heavy, deep drone, a warning to those with ears to get out of the way. It was the MM alarm. As the woman's green Vespa began to screech to a halt at the sounding of the deep, ground-shaking noise, Naota spun around to face countless searchlights beaming forth from the once dormant MM plant.

"The plant…" Naota stuttered, eyes wide, sweat gathering on his brow. "It's--"

"—_activated!" _the woman whispered loudly to herself as she brought her Vespa to a slowly halt directly behind Naota. She gritted her teeth, pulling up her goggles to reveal a pair of intense, yellow eyes. Her eyes shifted from the back of Naota's head to the MM plant, now bustling with life as the searchlights continued to scour the darkened skies. _I better stop it before it happens again--! _Once again, she brought the Flying V guitar back like a baseball bat, prepared to drive its "V" directly through Naota's head.

But she was too late. Suddenly an invisible force sent her and her Vespa flying backwards and into a nearby alleyway, after which a loud crash sounded in the midst of the unrelenting drone of the MM plant. The lid of a trash can rolled out into the street.

"Why…" Naota uttered, then gasped as he realized what was jutting out from his head. "No…" It was long. "It can't be!" It was hard. "It just isn't possible!" It was a horn.

"NO—!" A bright, burning red flash emanated from Naota's head as he was flung to the ground by an unseen jolt. His limbs trembled as sweat beads dripped from his forehead and his dark brown hair. His jaws hung open as he gasped over and over, his head trembling as though a seizure had taken over him. He threw his head back as a searing pain jolted up his spine. Another bright red light burst from the horn on his head, and little did he realize that the horn was turning blue…and was changing its shape.

"_Aaaaaaaaa_--_!"_ He yelled uncontrollably as a gigantic blue hand thrust itself forth from his forehead. _It's happening again! It's happening again! It's happening again--! _Then a high, piercing, whistle-like sound filled the air…and everything faded into stunning white brightness.

"C-C-C…Canti?"

** END OF CHAPTER 1**


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